The delights of Mountain Biking

Sam Gaze has made the news for mostly the wrong reasons. Here is my letter to Sam.

13th April 2018

.Dear Sam

Long before you were born, the sport of mountain biking boomed. The reason it boomed was very easy to identify. People like you were NOT a part of the sport. Hence thousands of good sports (like Anton) flocked to the delight of the fat tyred bike.

I suggest that you take your skills where they would be better accepted. To the Velodrome. You should take up Track. That elbow tactic – what a winner! Expect ‘payback’- to the power of ten – from the old Track hands.

Disappointedly yours

Grumpy Grahame cc Greg Fraine – Specialized

1990 MTB New Zealand Novice Veteran National Champion

Actually there was no such class. I created it after I discovered that I was the ONLY veteran to complete all six Novice National-Series races. Dome Valley – Taupo – Nelson – Hanmer – ChCh – Queenstown. No-one else laying claim. No-one else could. Hanmer race shown – with the Kalahari MTB bought from Greg Fraine Cycles. Still own and occasionally ride this bike.

Halfway through the Taupo race my brand new chain snapped. This encouraged those behind me to ‘attack’. As they passed by, I gave them a friendly wave. None stopped!

Who am I to judge? In the early 1990’s Sisson Kayaks Ltd and Composite Cycles NZ sponsored 31 athletes in 7 different sports plus seven race events.

Seven of the sponsored athletes were repeat National Champions in their chosen sport. Paul Caffyn, Steve Gurney, John Kirkcaldy, Jason Craig, Greg Fraine and Nathan Fa,avae.

We even published our own newsletter so that our-family-of-athletes were aware of the success of the others. The success compounded. There were basically two rules associated with continued SK & CCNZ sponsorship.

There had to be a degree of observable fun.

Good sportsmanship – always – and always.

One athlete lost our sponsorship because a recent race conquest was clearly fuelled by The-Drug-of-Hatred. This is a very powerful drug. There is no known chemical test. I know it when I see it.